Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' "More News From Nowhere"
I've been enjoying Nick Cave's "More News From Nowhere" a lot since the release of Dig, Lazurus, Dig! It's quickly become one of my favorite tracks on the album, which I'm finding myself frequently listening to as I write. The band just released the video for the song, and it's as long and weird as the song itself is. Clocking in at just over eight minutes, the song has a repetition to it that alternates between sex and violence and excitement and boredom, much like expressions on the faces of the patrons of the surreal strip club in the video. It's a hard song to talk about but a good one to listen to. Here's the lyrics to an Odyssey-inspired verse from the middle of the song, followed by the video itself:
I turn another corner
I go down a corridor
And I see this guy
He must be about one hundred foot tall
And he only has one eye
He asks me for my autograph
I write nobody and then
I wrap myself up in my woolly coat
And I blind him with my pen
'Cause someone must have stuck something in my drink
Everything's getting strange lookin'
Half the people have turned into squealing pigs
The other half are cooking
Well let me out of here I cried
And I went pushing past
And I saw Miss Polly singing with some girls
I cried struck me to the mast
Also, Nick Cave's a terrible dancer. Or, possibly, a brilliant one. Even after eight minutes of his moves, I'm not sure which it is.
Matt Bell
in Rock for Writers
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Elizabeth Ellen's "Fistful"
Elizabeth Ellen has a story called "Fistful" in the new issue of Dogzplot, and it's one of her darkest stories yet. The story is narrated by a pregnant girl named Shannon who lives in a drug house with her abusive boyfriend and a supporting cast of similarly rough characters. It's rare to see a pregnant character callously disregarding the health of her baby, yet Shannon chain smokes throughout the story, moving between accusatory arguments and multiple sexual partners in a downward spiral of degradation. A faint glimmer of hope eventually emerges, only to be crushed as thoroughly as I've ever seen done in fiction. In a favorite passage, Shannon steals her lover's gun as she prepares to leave the house with a different man:
Are we going to need that? Matty said.
You never know, I said. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. I guess, he said.
He sounded unconvinced. I wrapped the gun in a towel and shoved it in the bag with the drugs and my makeup. I wasn’t interested in convincing anyone of anything anymore. I figured one man was as good as another, a car as good as a father, a womb full of rage as good as a baby for keeping you warm at night. I sat down on the arm of the couch and laced up my boots. I took a last drag off my cigarette and ground it into the carpet.
At this point, I figured Shannon would escape from that place pretty well destroyed, and although I wasn't exactly wrong, I also had no idea what was coming next. The ending of this story is as dark and terrible as anything I've read lately, a denouement that stunned me when I first read it and upsets me to think about now.
Read "Fistful" in the new Dogzplot, as well as a new Steven McDermott story ("Sisyphus, the Snowball, and Hell," something different from his usual offerings), plus fiction and poetry from many other writers. So far, this is the best issue of the magazine I've read.
Matt Bell
in Literary Magazines
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New Literary Magazine Reviews at NewPages
I'm a couple of days late with the news, but new literary magazine reviews are now up at NewPages, including reviews of the following magazines:
Alice Blue :: Big Muddy :: Blood Lotus :: The Cimarron Review :: Columbia Poetry Review :: Connecticut Review :: Diode :: The Dirty Goat :: Earthshine :: Gargoyle :: Glimmer Train :: The Greensboro Review :: Manoa :: Natural Bridge :: Paradigm :: The Sewanee Review :: SUB-LIT :: Virginia Quarterly Review
An Evening with Kevin Sampsell and Hobart on May 22
Next Thursday at 7pm, Future Tense Books publisher and writer Kevin Sampsell is coming to town reading in support of his new collection Creamy Bullets, and will be reading at Shaman Drum Bookshop, along with myself, Aaron Burch, and Barry Graham, all of whom will be representing the Hobart side of the evening. You can read what I had to say about one of the stories from his collection, or head over to Shaman Drum's website for more info about the reading. Hopefully we'll see some of you local folks at the reading or at the dinner/drinks portion of the evening at Ashley's afterwards. Should be a great time.
Matt Bell
in Readings/Signings
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Absinthe Hosts Festival of New European Film and Writing
This weekend (May 9-10, 2008), local literary magazine Absinthe: New European Writing is hosting a Festival of New European Film and Writing at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. If you're in Michigan and free this weekend, there are a lot of interesting readings and screenings available, all of which are free and open to the public. More information is available here.
Also, Absinthe 9 just came out, and I got my copy yesterday. I can't wait to read it.
"5:25" at Isak
I don't generally write much here on topics other than writing and reading and music, but maybe I should. Anna Clark has taken some time out of her own literary coverage over at Isak to provide "5:25," a great post about the state of our prison system, and I think it's a must read post on a blog I already read every day. Go now and read it.
Matt Bell
in Elsewhere on the Web...
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No Posit Vol. 2 Published
Matt Bell
in Literary Magazines
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New Blog: Five Star Literary Stories
T.J. Forrester has just started a new blog called Five Star Literary Stories, where he invites literary magazine editors to nominate one of their stories available on the web to be reviewed by another writer, combining (in Forrester's words) "three integral facets of the writing life: publisher, story, and reviewer." It's an interesting project, and the first three magazines to participate are Hobart, Night Train, and Summerset Review, all excellent magazines. It's an interesting project, and I'll be reading more as it goes forward.
Thanks to Aaron Burch for pointing this one out.
Matt Bell
in Elsewhere on the Web...
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FRiGG: Issue 20, Spring 2008
FRiGG's Issue 20 went up recently, and its a stunner. Issue after issue, the artwork is among the best of any magazine on the web, and I think this issue is particularly beautiful. As for the writing, I've only had a chance to read Scott Garson's stories so far (his "Diversion" is particularly haunting), but I'm diving right back in to read more.
Also, I believe this is FRiGG's fifth anniversary issue, if I'm doing my math right. Congrats to Editor Ellen Parker and her staff on keeping it going this long, and at such a high level of quality (and I'm not just saying that because I was in it years ago). I'm looking forward to reading FRiGG for years to come.
Matt Bell
in Literary Magazines
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May Book Reviews Posted at NewPages
The May Book Reviews are now up at NewPages, including my own reviews of books by John Brandon, Charles Jensen, Elizabeth Crane, Sloane Crosley, and Alex Rose. Here are quick links to the reviews:
Arkansas by John Brandon :: Sensational Spectacular by Nate Pritts :: Oh Baby by Kim Chinquee:: The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon by Charles Jensen :: Behind My Eyes by Li-Young Lee :: You Must Be This Happy to Enter by Elizabeth Crane :: City of Regret by Andrew Kozma :: Spring Wind Brings the Fireworks by Christopher Kelen and Agnes Vong :: I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley :: The Musical Illusionist by Alex Rose
Enjoy!Matt Bell
in Book Reviews, NewPages
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